60 
THE DESCENT OF MAN. 
Part I. 
formation. The manner in which certain letters or 
sounds change when others change is very like corre- 
lated growth. We have in both cases the reduplication 
of parts, the effects of long-continued use, and so forth. 
The frequent presence of rudiments, both in languages 
and in species, is still more remarkable. The letter m 
in the word am , means I; so that in the expression I am, 
a superfluous and useless rudiment has been retained. 
In the spelling also of words, letters often remain 
as the rudiments of ancient forms of pronunciation. 
Languages, like organic beings, can be classed in groups 
under groups ; and they can be classed either naturally 
according to descent, or artificially by other characters. 
Dominant languages and dialects spread widely and 
lead to the gradual extinction of other tongues. A lan- 
guage, like a species, when once extinct, never, as Sir 
C. Lyell remarks, reappears. The same language never 
has two birth-places. Distinct languages may be crossed 
or blended together . 43 We see variability in every 
tongue, and new words are continually cropping up ; but 
as there is a limit to the powers of the memory, single 
words, like whole languages, gradually become extinct. 
As Max Muller 44 has well remarked : — A struggle for 
“ life is constantly going on amongst the words and gram- 
“matical forms in each language. The better, the 
“ shorter, the easier forms are constantly gaining the 
“ upper hand, and they owe their success to their own 
“ inherent virtue.” To these more important causes of 
the survival of certain words, mere novelty may, I 
think, be added ; for there is in the mind of man a strong 
love for slight changes in all things. The survival or 
43 See remarks to this effect by the Key. F. W. Farrar, in an interest- 
ing article, entitled “ Philology and Darwinism ” in ‘ Nature,’ March 
24th, 1870, p. 528. 
44 ‘Nature,’ Jan. 6th, 1870, p. 257. 
